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Catic — High Roads - Commish
Published: 2011-12-23 10:54:04 +0000 UTC; Views: 2107; Favourites: 20; Downloads: 35
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Description
A commission I did for a friend.Landscapes are hard. Gotta try doing more of them..
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Comments: 23
absolutely awesome! TEACH ME YOUR WAYS! How do you do the sky and palette? Asked so many people this but I never get an answer- my colours end up looking fake and cartoony as they are way to bright and contrasting, can you help me out with a tutorial or something? Thanks very much, and incredible work
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Haha, I'm glad you like it. Thanks! As for coming up with the palette, it all comes down to messing around with small color composition thumbnails, though I had something in mind in the beginning. You should be looking at various references throughout the process as well.
Looking at your work, I can say that in many cases it's not that the colors look cartoony, but that there are issues with the value contrast, atmospheric perspective and the like. Contrast is *everything*, and if you have accurate enough values and shadow edges, you can get a pretty good looking image regardless of your colors. This is something I'm always trying to improve on.
I would practice doing some black and white studies perhaps to get more familiar with how it works, as well as in general look out for how successful artists handle the idea. I don't really have time to write up a tutorial right now, but there are plenty of other far better artists out there who do upload process videos and step-by-step tutorials. If you have any other specific questions, I'll do my best to answer however.
Again, thanks a ton for the comment!
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Ok that makes sense, will try to do some thumbnail colours.
Its very frustrating as I know exactly what it should look like in my head but its either washed out, samey, or too bright!
Value contrast? Ok, so were talking the further away an object is the lighter and less distinguished it is kinda thing?
I start my paintings in value and I'm usually fairly ok with it until I add colour, as I usually do 'adjust hue' [colour here] 'overlay' [paint in the other colours] to get them, but as you can see with my earth dragon one that doesnt work out so well
Yeah I can understand if your busy no worries, I have looked on loads on youtube but I just cant transfer the skills to my paintings D:
As for the comment no problem I am a great admirer of your paintings keep it up
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Yeah something like that, except it would technically be that the farther an object is, the more it tends to blend with the color of the "sky" or "atmosphere", which wouldn't necessarily be lighter every time. Lights and darks meld together into that tone, *reducing their contrast* the farther an object is within the atmosphere. Just make sure that objects close to the viewer don't share contrast with objects farther away.
And yeah, it's tough figuring out exactly how to improve, but I guess so long as you focus on studying the core fundementals (lighting, perspective, etc) and have an idea of what direction to take in learning them, you're probably in good shape.
I guess if you'd like I could maybe do a really quick paint-over of the Earth Dragon to show the the general idea of what I mean with the whole contrast thing. I'm not amazing or anything but if you think it might help, I wouldn't mind.
Thanks again! ^^
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Ok yeah I get that, will try that in my next piece. May do a few studies
That would be amazing if you could 
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Well here it is:
[link]
And here are a few notes:
[link]
I guess you could call it a quick rough start. I tried not to change too many of your shapes, though I think the ground did change a bit, also, all colors have been sampled and darkened/lightened from the ones you already had on there. It's not too detailed or anything, but once have your rough value shapes down you can get more detailed later, as you progress.
The beginning early stage in which you sort out your lighting and get a clear looking picture just through value shapes and no details is very important. Some tricks for checking this include squinting at the piece or zooming out so that it looks like a thumbnail. If it looks "good" value wise at that stage, then you're in good shape. Throughout the process you should make sure the main value shapes remain accurate, even when adding in things like reflected light or other details.
I'm probably talking way too much, so I hope this makes an ounce of sense or was at least a little helpful.
And I'll do my best to answer some questions should you have them.
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woah awesome thanks very much
I'm slightly humbled how you made that epic without even adding detail 
I will try to zoom out next time in that case- on a request for a snow leopard so that should use too much atmosphere dynamics but hoping to get the 'focus' right on it. Tell me what you think when I've posted it, thanks so much for your help I'm really grateful that you spent the time to do this
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Haha it's no problem. When doing landscapes you'll always have to deal with the atmosphere and atmospheric perspective, so long as there is one (which there will almost always be).
For up close shots of characters or animals or whatever the effects of atmospheric perspective will be minimal unless you're dealing with either something like fog or very distant objects.
Anyway I don't want to overkill this by talking too much about it, but I guess just study how various artists deal with the concept in each of their pieces and try to make sense of how they approach it.
I look forward to seeing your stuff!
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Ok will do!
Yes I'm sorry, I've bothered you enough! I will leave you in peace
Just about to post a new leopard one (unless the requestee doesnt want me to post until the 2nd) so hopefully you can have a look at that
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Haha, you're not bugging me at all. xP
Looking forward to seeing it.
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hm i think you're being polite!
Also doing another request and I am doing my best to remember your tips
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Awesome colors on this, love the painterly look to it as well.
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I'm very glad you like it! Thanks
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Wow! Nice job! Looking at it almost gives a feeling of being there.
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